cranky pixels

Happy New Year, internets! It’s an even-numbered year, which always makes me feel vaguely twitchy, but I have high hopes for 2008. If I knew anything about numerology I’d probably have something pithy to say about the auspiciousness of all the numbers adding up to 1, but I don’t, so I’ll just…move on to something I do know about. Like resolutions! I resolve things. I do. And sometimes I actually do the things I resolve. More often not, since I tend to forget my resolutions by roughly January 2, and don’t remember them again until the last days in December, when…well, it’s a bit too late to lose 20lbs by that time, yes?

So in an effort to keep this year’s resolutions in the running, I give you my list:

* Finish at least one novel (incl. rewrites – I technically *finished* at least one during NaNoWriMo, but it needs to be reworked, to put it mildly) and submit to agents
* Exercise at least 2x/week
* Schedule 2 afternoons/week to devote to playing/spending time with the kid
* End next year with at least $5000 in our savings account (current balance: 68 cents)

I feel like there ought to be more in there, like “Get thee to therapy!” or “Learn to Salsa!” but I’m going with what I have. Optimism! Optimism is my friend.

Except maybe there should be something in there about my hair.

I have weird pain in my side. Not the appendix side; the other one. Feels like stabbing and burning. Not So says it’s probably my stomach, and he’s probably right, but will that stop me from fretting? It will not.

Honestly, it’s probably stress-related. This whole working-like-a-mad-person so I won’t have time to feel any pesky grief for my stupid dead father thing is coming back to bite me in the ass. Or the side, as the case may be.

I need a day off. Like, badly. I *might* be able to take one next weekend, if I can catch up with everything else before then. And assuming I’m not dying of some obscure side-pain related ailment.

(Off to Google the likelihood of that…)

I was going to post a picture, but I’m on Not So’s laptop, which means I’m only using one browser, which means – you really want to hear this? Okay – I’m not logged in to Flickr under my Cranky Mama alias, so I can’t grab the code for the image I want. The short version is “because.”

Today I went to the office, where there is STILL NO BLOODY INTERNET, and spent the day stitching together the various and sundry body parts of a new batch of Cranky Pals. Then I came home so I could work some more! My life, you wish it was yours. Also, I wore unflattering jeans, but that’s okay since I haven’t exactly been feeling like a sex beast, what with the death in the family and the…death in the family. Yeah, weirdly, that’s not hot. I was surprised too.

The kid is currently sleeping on my chest (I’m in bed, which is the beauty of using the laptop). You will note that is is 9pm; he’s been out since 8. Miracle? Why yes, if you call the Great Nap Boycott of 2007 a miracle. At least it means I can get some work done without anyone jumping on my head. Yes, cats, that means you.

*…not really. But it made me giggle, so it stays.

Today’s entry is going to be short, I’m afraid. Very short. In fact…this is it.

Tomorrow’s will be longer. I promise.

Cheers, all.

Or, I guess, sniffle sniffle would be more accurate, but whatevs. I’m getting sick. I can feel it in my head, in my poor beleaguered sinuses, in my cannot-drag-self-out-of-bed-to-save-life-ness. I woke up this morning and immediately needed a nap. Waking up: it’s harder than it looks!

But I don’t have time to be sick…or do I? Reassuringly, my husband just began a sentence “Well, he was standing at the sink with the bottle of shaving cream,” and it did not end with anyone needing to be hosed off. Clearly things are fine without me.

As an aside: somehow I have taught my son to cackle maniacally after giving kisses. “Mwah! Ha ha ha!” It’s hilarious, yet I wonder how this will go over when he’s playground age. Will he be the creepy kid chasing the girls for kisses and then running off with a sinister laugh? Given my playground hijinks I suspect the answer is, tragically, yes.

I am full of tired. We just got back from a baby shower for one of Not So’s coworkers, which was a surprising amount of fun (I say ‘surprising’ because I usually shrink in fear from social occasions which involve people I don’t know). Happy Fun Baby ran around with the other kids and had a grand time, and I got to hang out with people, and I even ate a little. Good times.

Now, of course, we’re home, and I’m facing the reality of being 4000 words behind on NaNoWriMo. Worse, Not So is even more behind, which leaves me torn – do I slog on despite that, or do I hold off until he’s had a chance to catch up with me so he doesn’t feel all discouraged? Because, see, I’ve written books before. Writing one in a month is a challenge, but it’s not the same challenge as writing one at all. I love that he’s doing this, and I want to be supportive…but I also want to finish my book. What to do, what to do.

I bit my tongue earlier today and now it’s all swollen and hurty. It rubs against my teeth when I talk. Waah.

Posting! Today! (It’s still today, right?)

The good news is I’ve finished my finals and written almost 10,000 words.

‘Night!